Belief Poll

For me, I know God exists, though my evidences are mainly subjective.
I also believe in one God, one Trinity God.
Oh, and I also love Him very much.

Which statements most closely match your views? "God(s)" means one God or many gods.
I believe that god(s) exist, but I don't claim to know that this is so.
I believe that god(s) exist, and I know that this is so.
I don't believe that god(s) exist, but I don't claim to know that this is so.

My reaction:

Unfortunately.. I think the survey is rather flawed or biased.. When you write "god" to me it shows a lack of respect for others beliefs. In English a small case letter is a diminutive..also, plurality of gods is offensive to some..

Arthra said:

Which statements most closely match your views? "God(s)" means one God or many gods.
I believe that god(s) exist, but I don't claim to know that this is so.
I believe that god(s) exist, and I know that this is so.
I don't believe that god(s) exist, but I don't claim to know that this is so.

My reaction:

Unfortunately.. I think the survey is rather flawed or biased.. When you write "god" to me it shows a lack of respect for others beliefs. In English a small case letter is a diminutive..also, plurality of gods is offensive to some..

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If you write 'God' with a capital G, you are automatically excluding a wide range of beliefs, because upper case 'God' refers to a specific god (as it is a name), while lower case 'god' refers to gods in general. Same thing applies with the plural; if you don't use it you're excluding all polytheists. Seeing as this survey is aimed at everyone, it would be rather counter-intuitive to deal with these perceived 'flaws'.

If someone is offended by the fact that people have different beliefs to them, then they really need to rethink their world-view. Then they need to get over it.

Arthra said:

Unfortunately.. I think the survey is rather flawed or biased.. When you write "god" to me it shows a lack of respect for others beliefs. In English a small case letter is a diminutive..also, plurality of gods is offensive to some..

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Well, he's admitted that it's an imperfect survey. And if anyone is genuinely offended by the absence of an upper case god, or the presence of too many gods, in a discussion forum about religion, then they are probably going to struggle with life in general and would be better off keeping the curtains shut and staying in bed. IMO.

I've ticked agnostic. I could be attracted to all the options that don't have the "I know" element. But I don't feel strongly enough about any of them. Life for me is learning the art of balancing ones canoe and riding the waves in a sea of uncertainty. And enjoying the stuff we can touch while it is there.

When you set up a survey you have to be aware of your own bias first in an attempt to be as impartial as possible.. other wise your results will be skewed from the beginning.. "skewed" is the operant word here..

Check the following:

U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey - Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

You don't see Pewforum using terms like belief in "god(s)"

Well by all means let's see the results.. of course, there is usually a limited sampling here...

I ticked #5 "I regard myself as an atheist." I do not believe in any supernatural entities. I meant to tick #3 too (but I didn't on accident) because I would never claim to know that such a being doesn't exist. Also, I echo the statements of a few others in this thread that we need to define "god" before we speak of it.

Eudaimonist said:

Arthra, are you trying to be offended?

I was attempting to be inclusive of polytheists, and I thought that I had chosen a reasonable way to do this. I wasn't trying to offend anyone with the term "god(s)", and I don't believe that this will skew any results, as it should be readily apparent what I mean.

I apologize if I had caused offense with the lower case g, but I will not apologize for being inclusive of polytheists, especially here in the Christianity and World Religion board. If you have a problem with polytheists, the problem is fully yours, not mine.

If you are unhappy with my poll, please feel free to create your own improved poll.

eudaimonia,

Mark

Click to expand...

I thought your poll was just fine. (By the way, I checked the first option 'I believe without knowing'.)

Arthra said:

When you set up a survey you have to be aware of your own bias first in an attempt to be as impartial as possible.. other wise your results will be skewed from the beginning.. "skewed" is the operant word here..

Check the following:

U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey - Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

You don't see Pewforum using terms like belief in "god(s)"

Click to expand...

Please look at the name of the forum, please consider what that means, and then please look at how the link you gave is not the same. Then please consider how ridiculous you are sounding.

Personally, I think you're just being offended for the sake of stirring up an argument.

EDIT: Quick question for Mark - is this poll for anything or is it just out of interest?

Why the need to capitalize G in God or Gods?

It seems to be a manner of grammar and theological distinction. Though one could ask why one even refers to God or gods with gender when, not unlike what my thread on the humanity and/or superhumanity/inhumanity of God and/or gods, perhaps they are not really interested in what you call them gender-wise as long as you believe in some sense. Assuming some kind of system where the faith of humans sustains the entities in question, though that gets complex.

I also notice that there is no G-d in your survey either, Mark. But I'm sure Ray will take it with a pinch of salt.

Yu_Jin said:

Why the need to capitalize G in God or Gods?

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It's a convention in English, that's all, and largely tied to the language's Germanic roots, I expect.

And "gods" is typically not capitalized, I'm sure due to the religious history of the area where English developed.

Ok a pinch of salt - but I'm not superstitious enough to throw it over my shoulder When I first opened the thread it seemed to me Mark had taken the g vs G thing into consideration, and hopefully out of respect, not just fear of rules gone haywire. I think he did a good job of defining that g word, considering. And Sith? God is not a name, but a title! I don't know if it's significant, I'm just surprised ya missed it. I think capitalizing it is (almost) purely a Christian convention, to denote the G-d above all other gods.

What I'm confused about is how you designed a poll where we can pick multiple options; I missed that in my vote. Pretty sure more than 1 would apply ..

razeontherock said:

I think capitalizing it is (almost) purely a Christian convention, to denote the G-d above all other gods.

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The Baha'i Writings at least in English translation consistently capitalize God. They also capitalize "He" when referring to those we consider Prophets such as Jesus, Muhammad, etc.

What I'm confused about is how you designed a poll where we can pick multiple options; I missed that in my vote. Pretty sure more than 1 would apply ..

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In a multi-choice poll the options you click appear as squares and not circles and there's some verbiage telling you you can make multiple choices.

That's in vBulletin anyway. Other forums may run other software.

razeontherock said:

And Sith? God is not a name, but a title! I don't know if it's significant, I'm just surprised ya missed it. I think capitalizing it is (almost) purely a Christian convention, to denote the G-d above all other gods.

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Indeed, but I would say that it's a title that has essentially become part of the name, at least in terms of general usage.

My answer depends on how you define "existence".

God(s) certainly exist in our collective idea-space, and from there, they exert a strong influence on our reality - regardless of their physical non-existence.